As one can ascertain, the need for semiconductor pressure transducers that can be used in harsh environments, including extremely high temperatures, has greatly increased. Such transducers, for example, are utilized in jet planes and can be positioned within the engines and other places in the aircraft, which involve extremely high temperatures.
For example, for such problems, reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 6,530,282 entitled, “Ultra High Temperature Transducer Structure” which issued on Mar. 11, 2003 to A. D. Kurtz et al. and is assigned to the assignee herein, Kulite Semiconductor Products, Inc. In that patent, there is described a hermetically sealed high temperature pressure transducer, which essentially includes a sensor wafer. There is a first header assembly coupled to the wafer, which includes a plurality of pins. Each of the pins are conventionally coupled to an associated contact area. The patent shows a second header assembly, which is coupled to the first assembly and to the sleeve. This header assembly includes a plurality of tubes. A wire or pin is positioned in each of the tubes. Then a temperature insulated cable is partially positioned within the sleeve and includes a plurality of wires which are coupled to the pins. A third header apparatus is coupled to the sleeve and includes a plurality of closed end tubes for serving as leads, where each one of the plurality of wires is positioned and then coupled to a respective closed end tube.
Essentially, the apparatus is shown best in FIGS. 5A and 5B of the patent, which shows the leads emanating from the transducers which are then directed into tubes, where the tubes also contain the connecting cable wires 40. Thus, as seen in that patent, each of the tubes contains a lead that emanates from the transducer another lead that is associated with an output cable.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,363,792 issued on Apr. 2, 2002 and is entitled, “Ultra High Temperature Transducer Structure” by A. D. Kurtz et al. and also assigned to the assignee herein, is the parent application which issued into a patent concerning the high temperature transducer structure. It is therefore apparent, even though the prior art shows many high temperature transducer structures, there is a need for an improved structure and the present invention relates to a novel and new method and apparatus for interconnecting leads in a high temperature pressure transducer without the use of solder.